Microsoft To Sell Official 8GB Xbox Flash Drives For $40

In case you hadn’t heard the big news, starting April 6th Xbox 360 owners will have a new way to add storage to their favorite console. They will be able to insert any USB drive, (be it a flash drive or hard drive) format it, and use it to store games and save files. The only downside is that they are limiting the usable space to 16GB. You can have larger drives, you just won’t be able to use more than 16GB on your 360.

Naturally, with the release of this new feature, Microsoft has decided to start selling their own branded flash drives. Of course from a company that sells 512MB memory cards for $30 and 250GB hard drives for $130, do you really expect them to be reasonably priced? Of course not.

According to a page on GameStop (which has been pulled at the time of writing, though sources say the pricing is correct) the official Xbox 360 8GB flash drive is going to cost $40. That’s over twice the cost of a similarly-sized stick over on Newegg. For once though, it really doesn’t bother me that Microsoft is marking up the prices of their storage. Why? Because for the first time you can actually purchase and use the cheaper alternatives with their blessing. Hallelujah!

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.